Google added a paragraph to its terms of service as of Monday to tell customers that, yes, it does scan e-mail content for advertising and customized search results, among other reasons. The change comes as Google undergoes a lawsuit over its e-mail scanning, with the plaintiffs complaining that Google violated their privacy.

Quote:

E-mail users brought the lawsuit against Google in 2013, alleging that the company was violating wiretapping laws by scanning the content of e-mails. The plaintiffs' complaints vary, but some of the cases include people who sent their e-mails to Gmail users from non-Gmail accounts and nonetheless had their content scanned. They argue that since they didn't use Gmail, they didn't consent to the scanning.

That does it. Over the summer I am deleting the acccount and sending a letter (not email) to their HQ that I want all my data erased on Youtube and on Gmail. Already been planning this but this goes to far and speeds up my plans. I will perhaps open a new account in the future only to use with all my associates who absolutely *adore* GoogleDocs and enjoy sharing Google Calendars back and forth.

But as an email service: Never, ever, again.

I've read up on a bunch of things that they've been sued on and forced by the EU but if you know anything I should quote specifically for the Youtube data (which seems to be the most difficult part) then please specify here.

I suspected this as well but was assured by their EULA and articles written on subjects that they do not.

How does this assist me with blocking their what I understand passive scanning of emails?

It's not an email thing.
You mentioned you wanted your YouTube viewing history deleted.
Even if you don't log in to YouTube , (or any other website), your browsing history , ( what you've seen), can be recorded via tracking ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_targeting

It doesn't help that my comments, my activity and so forth remain out there to possibly create a profile of me. It's not the main issue though. I was aware of this. It's just something I want done with the deletions of the emails and the data based on them which is by me considered private information and a gross violation of my personal integrity.

violating privacy is a google policy ... we dumped gmail and you tube after they shared my password between them based on a cookie...fortunately this was not a shared computer but if it had been......

When closing the accounts I found several years of search history in there.

Blocking the google ad domains in the router works nicely for me...if yours has that option....stops them even getting to the machine then.

gmx.com work ok and have pop and imap..all free.... and there are other mail alternatives ... or get yerself a cheap domain/website and email might come with that... then you are totally away from anyone sniffing yer post.

So when you logged on Gmail a cookie was created on your computer which in plain text (unencrypted?) has the password? If that's the case then it's criminal how stupid that is.

Thanks for the router tip! Might share that to a buddy of mine too. Click and forget!

It's just a pitty their algorithm is still the best one out there that I know off and they just keep getting fewer. It's not even just a search engine anymore. It's a cloud of services. Of course SEO is making it harder and harder to find relevant information but that's life.

I'm glad I experienced the web when it was the wild west. Now it's either mainstreet or the dirty underground of TOR and such.

well to be more precise ... had a gmail account. Its login details (name/password) was then used for a you tube account accessed through the same machine (my partners) ..ie one day out of the blue she had to use MY gmail login details to get into you tube.....we did nothing or concented to anything when this happened.. fortunately it was between us but imagine that scenario on a public computer.

Not sure if the password was in a cookie but it WAS assumed that the same person was the user of both accounts just because they used the same machine ...this happened when google bought out you tube.

It would be like ubuntu forum using your puppy forum login when your mate was the real user.

I have ask.com as default search now...seem to get the same useful results with much less irrelevant clutter. Other alternatives seem to be front ends for or filtered google.

I know google once smashed together Youtube and Gmail into what they call google account now. What might have happened is that that Youtube account was connected or registered to that Gmail-account.

It's pretty horrible either way.

And yeah... Once upon the time the internets felt like the unexplored virgin country of the wild west. Self-regulating communities, tons of unique independent websites (many maintained by knowledgeable professors or academics others by fun but sometimes interesting loonies), many different and specialized search engines, maintained and often interesting webrings. In this regard perhaps what I am missing the most today despite all the ad-sense and social media is finding things I didn't know existed or places related but unique to those that I knew about. More so than before you have to know what you're searching for and media in general is ever more geared to providing you what you want instead of what you need.

Not much of this is left or is much harder to find.
Even the old underground felt a bit cleaner.
It's still there, I'm sure. Just too deep to even sense it (for me).
...And parts of it are now more or less on mainstreet. Just as anonymous as they can be. Such as the scene.

There were shootings now and then and they could be brutal and some viruses spread like wildfire. But now we dwell in a sense of false security with the worst threats impossible or hard to guard against and the minor ones so common and annoying that they cost everyone either time or money.

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